Reading 2026-03 Test 29 — IELTS Academic Reading Practice Test with Answers

About this set: compiled and lightly cleaned up from real test material that test-takers recalled. IELTS draws from a global question pool, so this material circulates worldwide. To give you a complete, sittable test, material reported around the same period is assembled together — so a set may combine content from several exam dates, not one single sitting. Any audio is a recreation for practice. Organized for study convenience. Based on test-taker recalls — not official IELTS material.

Reading Passage 1: Education Philosophy of Children

A In 1660s, while there are few accurate statistics for child mortality in the preindustrial world, there is evidence that as many as 30 percent of all children died before they were 14 days old. Few families survived intact. All parents expected to bury some of their children and they found it difficult to invest emotionally in such a tenuous existence as a newborn child. When the loss of a child was commonplace, parents protected themselves from the emotional consequences of the death by refusing to make an emotional commitment to the infant. How else can we explain mothers who call the infant "it," or leave dying babies in gutters, or mention the death of a child in the same paragraph with a reference to pickles?

B One of the most important social changes to take place in the Western world in 18th century was the result of the movement from an agrarian economy to an industrial one. Increasingly, families left the farms and their small-town life and moved to cities where life was very different for them. Social supports that had previously existed in the smaller community disappeared, and problems of poverty, crime, sub-standard housing and disease increased. For the poorest children, childhood could be painfully short, as additional income was needed to help support the family and young children were forced into early employment. Children as young as 7 might be required to work full-time jobs, often under unpleasant and unhealthy circumstances, from factories to prostitution.

C Over the course of the 1800s, establishing a background the technological advance of the mid-1880s, coupled with the creation of a middle class and the redefinition of roles of family members, meant that work and home became less synonymous over the course of time. People began to buy their children toys and books to read. As the country slowly became more dependent upon machines for work, both in rural and in urban areas, it became less necessary for children to work inside the home. With the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, John Locke was one of the most influential writers of his period. His writings on the role of government are seen as foundational to many political movements and activities, including the American Revolution and the drafting of the Declaration of Independence. His ideas are equally foundational to several areas of psychology. As the father of "British empiricism." Locke made the first clear and comprehensive statement of the "environmental position" and, by so doing, became the father of modern learning theory. His teachings about child care were highly regarded during the colonial period in America.

D Jean Jacquest Rousseau lived during an era of the American and French Revolution. His works condemn distinctions of wealth, property, and prestige. In the original state of nature, according to Rousseau, people were "noble savages", innocent, free and uncorrupted. Rousseau conveyed his educational philosophy through his famous novel Emile, in 1762, which tell the story of a boy's education from infancy to adulthood. Rousseau observed children and adolescents extensively and spoke of children's individuality, but he based much of his developmental theory on observation in writing the book, and on the memories of his own childhood. Rousseau contrasts children to Developmental Psychology in Historical Perspective adults and describes age-specific characteristics. Johan Heinrich Pestalozzi lived during the early stages of industrial revolution, he sought to develop schools would nurture children's development. He agreed with Rousseau that humans are naturally good but were spoiled by a corrupt society. Pestalozzi's approach to teaching can be divided into the general and special methods. The theory was designed to create a emotionally healthy homelike learning environment that had to be in place before more specific instruction occurred.

E One of the best documented cases of all the so-called feral children concerned a young man who was captured in a small town in the south of France in 1800, and who was later named Victor. The young man had been seen in the area for months before his final capture — pre-pubescent, mute, and naked, perhaps 11or 12 years old, foraging for food in the gardens of the locals and sometimes accepting their direct offers of food. Eventually he was brought to Paris, where it was hoped that he would be able to answer some of the profound questions about the nature of man, but that goal was quashed very early. Jean-Marc-Gaspard Itard, a young physician who had become interested in working with the deaf, was more optimistic about a future for Victor and embarked on a five-year plan of education to civilize him and teach him to speak. With a subsidy from the government, Itard spent an enormous amount of time and effort working with Victor. He was able to enlist the help of a local woman, Madame Guerin, to assist in his efforts and provide a semblance of a home for Victor. But, after five years and despite all of his efforts, Itard considered the experiment to be a failure. Victor's lessons were discontinued, although he continued to live with Madame Guerin until his death, approximately at the age of 40.

F Other educators were beginning to respond to the simple truth that was embedded in the philosophy of Rousseau. One of the early examples of this approach was the invention of the kindergarten - a word and a movement created by Friedrich Froebel in 1840, a German-born educator. Froebel placed particular emphasis on the importance of play in a child's learning. His invention, in different forms, would eventually find its way around the world. His ideas about education were initially developed through his association with Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi. Froebel spent five years teaching at one of Pestalozzi's model schools in Frankfurt, and later he studied with Pestalozzi himself. Eventually he was able to open his own schools to test his educational theories. One of his innovative ideas was his belief that women could serve as appropriate educators of young children — an unpopular view at the time. At the age of 58, after almost four decades as a teacher, Froebel introduced the notion of the kindergarten. By the time of Froebel's death in 1852, dozens of kindergartens had been created in Germany. Their use increased in Europe and the movement eventually reached and flourished in the United Stated in 20th century.

1
Choose the correct heading for Paragraph A.
- i. Approaches made by two famous educator.
- ii. Children hand to work to alleviate burden on family
- iii. Why children are not highly valued
- iv. Children died in hospital at their early age
- v. Politics related philosophy appeared
- vi. Creative learning method was applied on certain wild kid
- vii. Emerge and spread of called kindergarten
2
Choose the correct heading for Paragraph C.
3
Choose the correct heading for Paragraph D.
4
Choose the correct heading for Paragraph E.
5
Match the time period with the event: need for children to work.
- A. 18th century
- B. 19th century
- C. 20th century
6
Match the time period with the event: rise of middle class.
7
Match the time period with the event: emergence of a kindergarten.
8
Match the time period with the event: the kindergarten in the spread around US.
9
Who was not successful to prove the theory?
- A. Jean Jacquest Rousseau
- B. Jean-Marc-Gaspard Itard
- C. Johan Heinrich Pestalozzi
- D. Friedrich Froebel
10
Who combined development of both other children and himself?
11
Who promoted some emotional activities between school and family?
12
Who believed corruption is not a characteristic in people's nature?
13
Who was responsible for the increased number of a type of school in Germany?

Reading Passage 2: The Myth of the Eight-hour Sleep

We often worry about lying awake in the middle of the night—but it could be good for you. Indications from both science and history suggest that the eight-hour sleep may not be a natural or inborn pattern for humans. In the early 1990s, psychiatrist Thomas Wehr conducted research which implies just that. Wehr kept a group of people in a darkened room for 14 hours a day for a month. It took some time for their sleep to regulate, but by the fourth week the subjects had settled into a very distinct sleeping pattern. First, they slept for four hours, then woke for one or two hours before falling into a second four-hour sleep. Though sleep scientists were impressed by the implications of the study, the idea that we must sleep for eight consecutive hours persists amongst the general public.

In 2001, historian Roger Ekirch of Virginia Tech University in the US published a paper drawn from 16 years of research, revealing historical evidence that humans used to sleep in two distinct periods of time each night. Ekirch’s research found more than 500 references to a segmented sleeping pattern—in diaries, court records, medical books and literature, from the ancient Greeks to tribes in Nigeria. Much like Wehr’s findings, these references describe a first sleep which began not long following sunset. Then there was a waking period of one or two hours and after that a second sleep. During the waking period, people could be quite active. They sometimes got up and moved around the house, although most people stayed in bed, and perhaps read or wrote if they had enough money for candles. In many historic accounts, Ekirch found that people used the time that they were awake between periods of sleep to think about and attempt to analyse their dreams.

In his book, Evening’s Empire, historian Craig Koslofsky suggests an explanation for this divided sleep pattern in Europe. ‘Associations with night before the 17th century were not good,’ he writes. He goes on to explain that the streets of the cities and towns at night were often populated by thieves or worse. The streets at night consequently scared many people. Even the wealthy, who could afford to light their way, had better things to spend their nights on.

Ekirch found that references to the first and second sleep started to disappear during the late 17th century. The pattern began to alter first among the upper classes in northern Europe and, over the course of the next 200 years, began changing amongst the rest of Western society. By the 1920s, the idea of a first and second sleep had receded entirely from our social consciousness. Ekirch attributes the initial shift to improvements in street and home lighting.

As the night became a time for all kinds of activity, the length of time people slept declined. In 1667, Paris became the first city in the world to light its streets, using wax candles in glass lamps. It was followed by another French city, Lille, in the same year and by Amsterdam in Holland two years later, where a much more efficient oil-powered lamp was developed. London didn’t light its streets until 1684, but by the end of the 17th century, more than 50 of Europe’s major towns and cities were lit at night. Coffee houses emerged as a fashionable phenomenon and many were open virtually around the clock. Going out at night became commonplace, and spending hours lying in bed was considered a waste of time. ‘People were becoming increasingly time-conscious and sensitive to efficiency, certainly before the 19th century,’ says Ekirch. ‘But the Industrial Revolution intensified that attitude considerably.’ Strong evidence of this shifting attitude is contained in a medical journal from 1829 which urged parents to force their children out of the pattern of first and second sleep.

Today, most people seem to have adapted quite well to the eight-hour sleep, but Ekirch believes many sleeping problems may have roots in the human body’s natural preference for divided sleep, as well as in difficulties caused by extended exposure to artificial light in the modern world. This could be the cause of a condition called sleep maintenance insomnia, where people wake during the night and have trouble getting back to sleep. The condition first appears in literature at the end of the 19th century, at the same time as accounts of interrupted sleep disappear.

Sleep psychologist Gregg Jacobs says that the idea that we must sleep for an extended period of time could be damaging if it makes people who wake up in the night anxious, as this anxiety can itself discourage sleep and is likely to affect waking life too. Jacobs suggests that the waking period between sleeps, when people simply rested and relaxed, could have played an important part in the human capacity to regulate stress naturally. Russell Foster, a professor of circadian (body clock) neuroscience at Oxford University in the UK, shares this point of view. ‘Over 30% of the medical problems that doctors are faced with stem directly or indirectly from sleep. But sleep has been ignored in medical training, and there are very few centres where sleep is studied,’ Foster says. He feels this needs to change.

14
Section A
- i. Historical reasons why interrupted sleep became uncommon
- ii. Brain structures involved in sleep patterns
- iii. Potential health issues related to sleep
- iv. Famous cases in literature of sleep problems
- v. An analysis of old documents to discover sleep patterns
- vi. Biological and environmental factors preventing people from falling asleep again
- vii. Scientific evidence that divided sleep is a natural phenomenon
15
Section B
16
Section C
17
Section D
18
Section E
19
In certain historical periods, the threat of criminal danger led to segmented sleep.
- A. Thomas Wehr
- B. Roger Ekirch
- C. Craig Koslofsky
- D. Gregg Jacobs
- E. Russell Foster
20
Physicians should learn more about treating people with sleeping difficulties.
21
Historically, when people experienced interrupted sleep, they used the waking periods at night for different activities.
22
Technological changes in Europe made people more likely to sleep through the night.
23
The belief that humans should have a long continuous sleep can be psychologically harmful.
24
Historical evidence seems to show that humans had common sleep patterns which were quite unlike today’s eight hours of unbroken sleep each night. People habitually went to bed early, soon after _________, slept for a while, then woke up for a few hours of activity or perhaps to consider, for example, the meaning of their _________. There was little else to do at home in the dark, since what little means of lighting they had, such as using candles, was costly. In 16th-century Europe, people tended to stay at home at night because they feared _________ on largely unlit city streets. Once urban street lighting improved, nightlife in cities became popular, and recreational spots like coffee houses came to be considered fashionable. Consequently, sleeping patterns also began to change.

Reading Passage 3: Inside the mind of a fan: How watching sport affects the brain

A At about the same time that the poet Homer invented the epic there, the ancient Greeks started a festival in which men competed in a single race, about 200 metres long. The winner received a branch of wild olives. The Greeks called this celebration the Olympics. Though the ancient sprint remains, today the Olympics are far more than that. Indeed, the Games seem to celebrate the dream of progress as embodied in the human form. That the Games are intoxicating to watch is beyond question. During the Athens Olympics in 2004, 3.4 billion people, half the world, watched them on television. Certainly, being a spectator is a thrilling experience—but why?

B In 1996, three Italian neuroscientists, Giacomo Rizzolatti, Leonardo Fogassi and Vittorio Gallese, examined the premotor cortex of monkeys. They discovered that inside these primate brains there were groups of cells that ‘store vocabularies of motor actions’, just as there are grammars of movement. These networks of cells are the bodily ‘sentences’ we use every day, the ones our brain has chosen to retain and refine. Think, for example, about a golf swing. To those who have only watched the Masters Tournament on TV, golfing seems easy. To the novice, however, the skill of casting a smooth arc with a lopsided metal stick is virtually impossible. This is because most novices swing with their consciousness, using an area of the brain next to the premotor cortex. To the expert, on the other hand, a perfectly balanced stroke is second nature. For him, the motor action has become memorized, and the movements are embedded in the neurons of his premotor cortex. He hits the ball with the tranquility of his perfected autopilot.

C These neurons in the premotor cortex, besides explaining why certain athletes seem to possess almost unbelievable levels of skill, have an even more amazing characteristic, one that caused Rizzolatti, Fogassi and Gallese to give them the lofty title ‘mirror neurons’. They note that ‘the main functional characteristic of mirror neurons is that they become active both when the monkey performs a particular action (for example, grasping an object or holding it) and, astonishingly, when it sees another individual performing a similar action’. Humans have an even more elaborate mirror neuron system. These peculiar cells mirror, inside the brain, the outside world: they enable us to internalize the actions of another. In order to be activated, though, these cells require what the scientists call ‘goal-orientated movements’. If we are staring at a photograph, a fixed image of a runner mid-stride, our mirror neurons are totally silent. They only fire when the runner is active: running, moving or sprinting.

D What these electrophysiological studies indicate is that when we watch a golfer or a runner in action, the mirror neurons in our own premotor cortex light up as if we were the ones competing. This phenomenon of neural mirroring was first discovered in 1954, when two French physiologists, Gastaut and Bert, found that the brains of humans vibrate with two distinct wavelengths, alpha and mu. The mu system is involved in neural mirroring. It is active when our bodies are still, and disappears whenever we do something active, like playing a sport or changing the TV channel. The surprising fact is that the mu signal is also quiet when we watch someone else being active, as on TV. These results are the effect of mirror neurons.

E Rizzolatti, Fogassi and Gallese call the idea of mirror neurons the ‘direct matching hypothesis’. They believe that we only understand the movement of sports stars when we ‘map the visual representation of the observed action onto our motor representation of the same action’. According to this theory, watching an Olympic athlete ‘causes the motor system of the observer to resonate. The ‘motor knowledge’ of the observer is used to understand the observed action.’ But mirror neurons are more than just the neural basis for our attitude to sport. It turns out that watching a great golfer makes us better golfers, and watching a great sprinter actually makes us run faster. This ability to learn by watching is a crucial skill. From the acquisition of language as infants to learning facial expressions, mimesis (copying) is an essential part of being conscious. The best athletes are those with a premotor cortex capable of imagining the movements of victory, together with the physical properties to make those movements real.

F But how many of us regularly watch sports in order to be a better athlete? Rather, we watch sport for the feeling, the human drama. This feeling also derives from mirror neurons. By letting spectators share in the motions of victory, they also allow us to share in its feelings. This is because they are directly connected to the amygdala, one of the main brain regions involved in emotion. During the Olympics, the mirror neurons of whole nations will be electrically identical, their athletes causing spectators to feel, just for a second or two, the same thing. Watching sports brings people together. Most of us will never run a mile in under four minutes, or hit a home run. Our consolation comes in watching. When we gather around the TV, we all feel, just for a moment, what it is to do something perfectly.

25
27 an explanation of why watching sport may be emotionally satisfying
26
28 an explanation of why beginners find sporting tasks difficult
27
29 a factor that needs to combine with mirroring to attain sporting excellence
28
30 a comparison of human and animal mirror neurons
29
31 the first discovery of brain activity related to mirror neurons
30
32 a claim linking observation to improvement in performance
31
33 The writer uses the term ‘grammar of movement’ to mean
- A. a level of sporting skill.
- B. a system of words about movement.
- C. a pattern of connected cells.
- D. a type of golf swing.
32
34 The writer states that expert players perform their actions
- A. without conscious thought.
- B. by planning each phase of movement.
- C. without regular practice.
- D. by thinking about the actions of others.
33
35 The writer states that the most common motive for watching sport is to
- A. improve personal performance.
- B. feel linked with people of different nationalities.
- C. experience strong positive emotions.
- D. realize what skill consists of.
34
36 Inexpert sports players are too aware of what they are doing.
35
37 Monkeys have a more complex mirror neuron system than humans.
36
38 Looking at a photograph can activate mirror neurons.
37
39 Gastaut and Bert were both researchers and sports players.
38
40 The mu system is at rest when we are engaged in an activity.

Answer sheet

Fill in as you go — checking is instant and local, and every miss lands in your mistake log with the lesson that fixes it.

Saved on this device — no account needed. Sign in on your progress page if you want it synced elsewhere.

Show answer key

1. iv
The correct heading is 'Children died in hospital at their early age' because Paragraph A discusses high child mortality, mentioning that many children died young due to poor conditions.
2. v
The correct heading is 'Politics related philosophy appeared' because Paragraph C talks about how political ideas influenced views on childhood and education.
3. i
The correct heading is 'Approaches made by two famous educator' because Paragraph D describes the methods of two important educators and how they influenced teaching.
4. vi
The correct heading is 'Creative learning method was applied on certain wild kid' because Paragraph E explains how a new teaching method was used on a child who grew up without normal human contact.
5. A
The need for children to work is matched with the 18th century, as the passage says children had to help their families during this time.
6. B
The rise of the middle class is matched with the 19th century, as the passage describes social changes and the growth of this group during that period.
7. B
The emergence of kindergarten is matched with the 19th century, as the passage explains that kindergartens started in this era.
8. C
The spread of kindergarten around the US is matched with the 20th century, as the passage says kindergartens became common in America during this time.
9. B
Jean-Marc-Gaspard Itard was not successful in proving his theory, as the passage says his experiment with the wild child did not fully work.
10. A
Jean Jacquest Rousseau combined the development of both other children and himself, as the passage says he learned about himself while teaching children.
11. C
Johan Heinrich Pestalozzi promoted emotional activities between school and family, as the passage mentions he encouraged close ties and feelings between home and school.
12. A
Jean Jacquest Rousseau believed corruption is not a characteristic in people's nature, as the passage says he thought people are born good.
13. D
Friedrich Froebel was responsible for the increased number of a type of school in Germany, as the passage says he started many kindergartens.
14. vii
Section A's heading is 'Scientific evidence that divided sleep is a natural phenomenon' because it discusses research showing that sleeping in two parts is normal for humans.
15. v
Section B's heading is 'An analysis of old documents to discover sleep patterns' because it describes how researchers looked at historical records to learn about past sleep habits.
16. i
Section C's heading is 'Historical reasons why interrupted sleep became uncommon' because it explains how changes in society made continuous sleep more usual.
17. vi
Section D's heading is 'Biological and environmental factors preventing people from falling asleep again' because it talks about things that make it hard to go back to sleep after waking up.
18. iii
Section E's heading is 'Potential health issues related to sleep' because it discusses health problems that can come from sleep difficulties.
19. C
Craig Koslofsky is the answer because the passage says he explained that fear of crime at night led people to sleep in segments.
20. E
Russell Foster is the answer because the passage says he believes doctors should learn more about sleep problems to help patients.
21. B
Roger Ekirch is the answer because the passage says he found that people used the time between sleeps for various activities.
22. B
Roger Ekirch is the answer because the passage says he linked better street lighting and technology to people sleeping through the night.
23. D
Gregg Jacobs is the answer because the passage says he warns that believing in only one long sleep can harm people's mental health.
24. sunset / dreams / thieves
The correct words are 'sunset / dreams / thieves' because the passage says people went to bed after sunset, woke up to think about dreams, and feared thieves in the dark streets.
25. F
F is correct because it explains why watching sport is emotionally satisfying, saying people enjoy strong feelings from watching games.
26. B
B is correct because it explains that beginners find sporting tasks difficult as they have to think about every movement, making it hard.
27. E
E is correct because it says that to reach sporting excellence, mirroring must be combined with practice or repetition.
28. C
C is correct because it compares human and animal mirror neurons, saying monkeys have a simpler system than humans.
29. D
D is correct because it describes the first discovery of brain activity related to mirror neurons in monkeys.
30. E
E is correct because it claims that watching others can help improve your own performance, linking observation to learning.
31. C
C is correct because 'grammar of movement' means a pattern of connected cells in the brain that controls movement.
32. A
A is correct because the passage says expert players act without thinking, not needing to plan each move.
33. C
C is correct because the passage says most people watch sport to feel strong positive emotions, not mainly to improve their own skills.
34. YES
YES is correct because the passage says inexpert players are too focused on what they are doing, which makes it harder for them.
35. NO
NO is correct because the passage says humans have a more complex mirror neuron system than monkeys, not the other way around.
36. NO
NO is correct because the passage says looking at a photograph does not activate mirror neurons, only watching real movement does.
37. NOT GIVEN
NOT GIVEN is correct because the passage does not say whether Gastaut and Bert were sports players as well as researchers.
38. YES
YES is correct because the passage says the mu system is at rest when we are doing an activity, not when we are just watching.

Want the full timed experience? Try the free full mock exam — real recalled questions, in the real exam interface.

Start mock exam →

Reading Passage 1: Education Philosophy of Children

Reading Passage 2: The Myth of the Eight-hour Sleep

Reading Passage 3: Inside the mind of a fan: How watching sport affects the brain

Answer sheet

Answer key